A court in Kenya on Tuesday slapped a record sentence on a Chinese ivory smuggler, the first person to be convicted under tough new laws designed to stem a surge in poaching.

Tang Yong Jian, 40, was ordered to pay 20 million shillings (HK$1.78 million) or else go to jail for seven years. He was arrested last week carrying an ivory tusk weighing 3.4 kilograms in a suitcase while in transit from Mozambique to China via Nairobi.

A spokesman for the Kenya Wildlife Service, which manages the countryâ€™s celebrated national parks, welcomed the verdict.

â€œItâ€™s a landmark ruling that sets a precedent for those involved in smuggling,â€ Paul Udoto said, saying stricter sentences will make the â€œkilling of wildlife a high cost businessâ€.

â€œItâ€™s a remarkable precedent,â€ he said, explaining that the fact that smugglers were previously punished with â€œa slap on the wristâ€ was demoralising for park rangers.

â€œItâ€™s very motivating for our rangersâ€ to see poachers â€œlose a lot of money and spend long terms in Kenyan prisons,â€ he said.

Kenya is a key transit point for ivory smuggled from across the region.

Poaching has risen sharply in Africa in recent years, with rhinos and elephants particularly hard-hit.

Under the new law, which came into force a month ago, dealing in wildlife trophies carries a minimum fine of a million shillings or a minimum jail sentence of five years, or both.

The most serious wildlife crimes - the killing of endangered animals - now carry penalties of life imprisonment, as well as fines of up to 20 million Kenyan shillings.

Previously, punishment for the most serious wildlife crimes was capped at a maximum fine of 40,000 Kenyan shillings, and a possible jail term of up to 10 years.

Some smugglers caught in Kenya with a haul of ivory were even fined less than a dollar apiece.